Flirting 101
by Vizer
Summary: Ash Ketchum can not, and will not back down from a challenge. When Misty accuses him of being unable to flirt, Ash makes it his goal to prove her wrong!


Brock stretched and relaxed against the log that was being used as a makeshift bench for the night. Usually he simply tuned out the frequent 'heated discussions' that his two companions regularly engaged in, but his interest was perked at this particular argument. Most of their fights started from getting lost whilst travelling, or from Ash's general lack of common sense, but for once, this was a fresh topic, and it had begun hours ago, when a particularly handsome young man happened to ask the group for directions to the next town. The question was directed at Misty, but the two males of the trio found that their companion had spectacularly lost the ability to speak! After a few awkward seconds that consisted of Misty's mouth silently moving, trying desperately to form any kind of coherent sentence, Ash and Brock felt it necessary to intervene, and help the gentleman on his way. Needless to say, this encounter proved to be a bountiful source of mirth for Ash, and what had begun as harmless teasing had, as per usual, evolved into a full blown argument Brock wondered if perhaps this dispute would point out the obvious attraction the pair harboured for each other, or if they would both continue to be as oblivious as ever. Probably the latter. Either way, Brock snapped free of his inner monologue as he heard his name being mentioned.

"- right, Brock?" questioned Ash,

"Huh, wuh?" came the intelligent reply,

"I said, even if Misty had talked to that guy, there's no way anything would have happened!"

"And what makes you think that?" interjected Misty, as Brock happily sighed in relief from not having to pick sides after being put on the spot.

"Ha! Come on Mist, do you even know how to flirt? The only guys you're ever around are me and Brock!"

"Well that's rich coming from you! I'm surprised you even know what flirting is! And besides, I watched my sisters flirt with every male in Cerulean City for years, trust me, I know how to flirt, Ketchum." Ash scoffed at this, having no reply, as Misty trumped him with her last retort. Just as Brock began to wonder if it was all over, he noticed Misty perk up, smirking as she continued, "Ahem, wait a second Ash, you've never been around any girls except me, and we both know Brock can't flirt at all, so I'm pretty sure, as always, you're the clueless one here!" Misty accentuated her accusation by pointing a finger into Ash's chest, as he stumbled on his words, and a faint blush rose over the bridge of his nose and across his cheeks.

"Pff- I- yeah, well, uh, I bet you can't even kiss! I was kissed by Melody when we were in the Orange Islands, so ha!" Ash yelled triumphantly, seeming pleased with his comeback.

"First of all, that was a peck on the cheek, that _so_ doesn't count, and second, you just admitted you can't flirt. As per usual, I win, seriously, it's like you aren't even trying Ashy Boy"

"Don't call me that!"

"Sure thing Ashy Boy, and now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go wash up for dinner" replied Misty, as she winked at Ash before skipping playfully through the trees surrounding the camp to reach the stream they had located nearby. Ash knew she would be gone for a while, Misty was prone to playing with her water Pokémon whenever she went to wash up, so he took the opportunity to ask Brock for some friendly advice.

"Say, Brocko..." Ash began,

"Hmm?" Brock replied while stirring at some sort of soup hearing in a pot over the crackling fire.

"D'ya think Misty's right? That I don't know how to flirt?"

"Well, Ash, exactly how would you flirt?"

"Um, well, I dunno, just like talking and stuff I suppose?"

"We're talking right now Ash, are we flirting?"

"What?! No! Or, wait, are we?!"

"Maybe we are, and maybe I like it..." Brock teased, in a voice deeper than his usual. He lifted his gaze from the simmering broth to stare at Ash through the light smoke given off by the fire. The raven-haired trainer had gone pale in the face, and his limbs were contorted at all angles, displaying his distress at his current predicament.

"What?! Brock! What the hell?!" Ash yelled,

"Hahahaha! Look at your face!" Brock howled as he clutched his sides, proceeding to wipe away a tear that had formed in his eternally closed eyes. "Pu-lease Ash, I quite obviously don't swing that way, and even if I did, I'd be way out of your league."

"I am never asking you for help about anything ever again. Ever. Ever!"

With Brock out of the equation, Ash turned to the only other living being he could ask, his trusted pal and first Pokémon, Pikachu.

"Hey Pikachu," The Pokémon's ears twitched as it heard it's master call, "how do you flirt?"

"Pi Pi Pikachu, Pika Pika chu Pi!" the yellow mouse replied enthusiastically, glad it could help whatever was troubling his beloved Pikapi.

(You sniff the Pikachu, then raise your tail if you like her!)

"Um... I don't have a tail Pikachu"

"Pikapi pi Pikachu?"

(Use your front tail?)

"Front tail...?" Ash brought his finger to his chin as he pondered what Pikachu could mean by this. When realization dawned on him, he nearly fell over in shock. "Waaaa! Pikachu! I can't do that, Misty would kill me!"

"Pi, cha" came the reply, Pikachu being somewhat offended that it's sound advice was disregarded.

(Fine, whatever)

Ash sat down in a huff, having received no useful information on the apparently complex art of flirting. It seemed to be a problem he had to solve by himself. _I just need to think about this logically, _Ash thought to himself. _Misty was right about Brock, he's definitely hopeless when it comes to women, but some of the girls he hits on seem to enjoy it before Misty drags Brock away by the ear. So, maybe if I could do some of the stuff Brock does, but a bit, well, watered down? So let's see... the typical Brock routine is to get down on his knees, take the girls hand, and tell them how fantastically, spectacularly beautiful they are. I am certainly not doing that to Misty. But, I could do a fraction of what Brock does, then it would probably work. Like instead of saying beautiful, I could use a word that isn't as intense. Maybe, cute? Or pretty? Yeah, Easy! Call Misty pretty, she swoons over my new found flirting abilities, I win as always, and balance is restored to the universe! Although... when Brock says those kinds of things, not many of the girls he 'seduces' actually react. I'm thinking I should make it more than just one compliment. I suppose I could let her win a few arguments as well and be a bit more of a gentleman to her too. She's a romantic, so no doubt she'll be all over me if I use some of the ol' Ketchum charm. Come on, I'm a champion at everything I do, why should flirting be any different? Aha, speak of the red-headed devil..._

As Ash finished with his inner monologue, Misty returned to the makeshift camp. Her hair was still damp from her bathing, so it hung loose, free from the usual side ponytail that had become her trademark. Not forgetting their earlier argument, Misty was just about to catch the eye of the boy sitting absent-mindedly petting his Pikachu, so that she could send him a frosty glare, but her plans were cut short as she realised Ash was already staring at her, with a warm smile plastered on his face. It was infectious, and his exuberance spread to her, and Misty found that she was smiling right back at him. _Dammit, _she thought,_ stupid Ash and his stupid smirk making me smile like a stupid idiot cus he's always so happy and stupid._

Ash quickly took notice of Misty's orange hair cascading down her back, and jumped at the opportunity to try his new flirting regime. _This is going to be a sinch, _he thought to himself,_ I mean, her hair actually does like kinda nice down, looks like all I have to do is point out obvious stuff. First though, I better apologise, it'll really surprise her that I would actually say sorry, and then a compliment will sweep her off her feet!_

"Hey Mist, c'mere a second" Ash said, putting his plans into action.

"What do **you** want?" Misty growled in return. While she had cooled off from the earlier argument, she could not let Ash know that. Being mad at the wannabe-master was a pretty enjoyable past time for her, so she decided to keep up the 'pissed-off' façade for a bit longer.

"I, uh, want to apologise about earlier. It ain't up to me who you want to look at, and, um, I shouldn't doubt your flirting skills either. I-I'm sorry." He finished his heart-warming speech by smiling meekly at Misty, and using the most effective puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Although, his eyes had nothing on those of Cerulean gym leader in front of him. They had widened considerably as she stood there, mouth agape, in total shock at the events that had just unfolded before her. Ash Ketchum **did not** apologise for anything! As she began to grow suspicious at his actions, Ash started to speak again before she could think too hard on the subject.

"So, ready for dinner? I think Brock finished the soup"

"I – wuh, um, huh?" Misty replied, still baffled as to why Ash had apologised.

"Soup. Food. Eat." Ash acted outed the motion of eating slowly and sarcastically for his own amusement. Truth be told, he had fully expected this reaction from his travelling partner. Ash was well aware of the full extent of his arrogance, and his own inability to say sorry. Life was too short for regrets in his opinion, better to move on and never look back, forget the bad things and pretend they hadn't happened. As such, apologies were viewed as a waste of time, if the relationship is strong enough, there should be no need to apologise! This philosophy had always worked with Misty, so he had foretold the bewilderment she was experiencing because of the two words of apology that had spilled from his mouth.

Misty blinked a few times, slowly coming to terms with what had happened, and then realised she must be acting rather odd, simply standing there, so she shook her head quickly in an effort to clear her thoughts. "Yeah, sure let's go" she said with a smile, which quickly transformed into a frown as she felt her fiery locks caress the sides of her face after her head had shaken. She removed an elastic band from her wrist, and made to tie her hair up into the typical ponytail, when she felt something warm encircle her wrist. Glancing up, she saw it was hand, and following it down the arm lead to a certain Pokémon trainer in front of her. It seemed he was not finished surprising her just yet.

"You know, you should, um, leave your hair down sometimes. I think it's really, uh, p-pretty like that" Ash was displeased at his stuttering and stumbling when speaking. As confident as he felt on the inside about what he was going to say, something, somewhere between his brain and his mouth altered his speech to that of a bumbling idiot. He also found his throat had dried up somewhat, his saliva seemingly absent in his hour of need, not to mention the beads of sweat forming on his palms. Peculiar symptoms indeed. He would never usually experience any of these difficulties when speaking to Misty, but then again, he never flirted with her before either. _Strange that it should happen now of all times though..._ he thought. At this given moment in time, Ash was confused at his bodily reactions as he knew these were the signs of him being nervous, as if he was talking to the love of his life, or something as equally ridiculous. He knew that he was physically attracted to Misty, that was for sure. She had grown and blossomed considerably from the scrawny little girl who had been the first to join him on his journey. But in his mind, it was simply a crush, just a little rush of hormones over a very pretty girl. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

"Oh, y-you really think so?" replied Misty, finding herself to have many of the problems Ash was currently coping with. However, being the romantic she was, and with slightly more common sense than the boy, she knew the reasons behind the reactions. Despite this, she found it hard to put a label on exactly what she felt for the dense little kid from Pallet. She knew it was more than like, but did not think it could be love, she was only 17 years of age, and surely she was too young and too inexperienced to know what love truly was. There was a lot of attraction, plenty of infatuation, but far too much trepidation. While there was hints of lust scattered throughout her array of emotions, she was entirely convinced that she was too young to ever think about going any further than a passionate kiss at best. She was proud, and would never follow the path of her sisters. Love them as she may, in her eyes their life choices were not to be admired.

With a gulp, Ash summoned the last of his remaining confidence to finish with a flourish.

"I know so Mist" and with a wink and a cheeky grin, he hastily made his way over to Brock, who was clueless as to what his friends had been discussing. Ash was glad he had left it at that, he could feel his face heating up as a blush slowly crept across the bridge of his nose.

As he slurped slowly on his soup, and savoured the salty liquid sweep down his throat, he decided that he should leave this flirty business until tomorrow before he attempted anything more. _Too much too soon and she might get suspicious. Plus, I need to think of some new, smooth lines to use so I don't end up repeating myself time after time. _

As the gang finished their meal, they all proceeded to unfurl their sleeping bags in preparation for sleep. As Ash tucked himself into his own with Pikachu nestled comfortably on his chest, he took notice that his female companion had seemingly decided to put her sleeping bag closer than usual to his own. Whether this was a conscious or subconscious decision on her behalf, he was not sure, but it did give him hope in his endeavours. The spacing of the sleeping bags went unrecognised by the eldest of the group, Brock, as he was too busy thinking about Nurse Joy or something, basically anything that would keep him busy so the writer of this fic could concentrate on the romance between Ash and Misty.

They bade goodnight to each other and all tucked themselves comfortably in for some well deserved rest. Two members of the group were feeling particularly happy and as they drifted off to sleep. One with hopes that his latest challenge would succeed, and the other with dreams that the boy she adored would finally take notice of what was always right in front of him.


End file.
